Who we are

Ilkari is a privately-held start-up based in Dublin, Ireland. We deliver hyper-private scale innovation and technology to safeguard and secure data, enabling true data sovereignty even as the pace of change accelerates. Our best-in-breed sovereign technology delivers privacy and control over where companies’ data resides, where it flows, and how it’s accessed.

We’re here to rewrite the story of data sovereignty – empowering innovators, pioneers and visionaries to make their mark. We believe the sky is not the limit. We strive for the perfect balance of simplicity and excellence in everything we do, and we’re looking for people who are ready to join our journey and rewrite the story of data sovereignty.

Role overview

As a Senior OpenStack Engineer, you will design, deliver, and operate production‑grade, multi‑site OpenStack instances that underpins our products and customer workloads. You’ll own change end‑to‑end - from architecture and automation to testing, rollout, and post‑deployment care - continually improving reliability, performance, security, and cost efficiency.

You’ll act as a technical leader: set standards, mentor engineers, and turn best practices into automation. You will also help productise cloud services and work closely with Architecture, Network, Platform/DevOps, Security, and Customer support to deliver secure, observable, and supportable platforms.

What you'll do

• Architect OpenStack (single- and multi-site) with clear HLD/LLD, standards, and operational runbooks.

• Build out cloud services (e.g., Kubernetes‑as‑a‑Service, Storage‑as‑a‑Service, DBaaS) with self‑service, quotas, SLAs/SLOs, metering/chargeback, and lifecycle automation.

• Lead automated deployments and upgrades with pre-checks, staged rollouts, and tested rollback plans.

• Operate and tune compute, storage, and networking stacks (Nova/KVM, Cinder/Ceph/Glance, Neutron/OVN, Octavia) for reliability, performance, and cost.

• Integrate securely with DC networks, firewalls, identity (Keystone), and enforce hardening, patching, and vulnerability management.

• Implement observability (metrics/logs/traces), define SLOs/alerts, and drive capacity planning and cost optimisation.

• Automate as code (Ansible/Terraform/Python) with CI/CD guardrails; bake standards into reusable modules and pipelines.

• Own incidents and improvements, lead on-call response, RCA/PIRs, and convert findings into durable fixes.

• Mentor engineers, review designs/changes, keep documentation current, and collaborate across Architecture, Network, Platform/DevOps and Security.

• Participate in on-call rotation and respond to incidents and emergencies

What are we looking for

Technical Skills

• 5 years in Linux/cloud infrastructure, including 2+ years designing, deploying, and operating production OpenStack.

• Certifications such as OpenStack COA, RHCE/RHCSA or LFCE/LFCS, CKA/CKAD, HashiCorp Terraform Associate, Ceph certification/training, or CCNP (or equivalent) are a plus.

• In‑depth OpenStack core: Nova, Neutron (OVN), Cinder, Glance, Keystone, Horizon; hands‑on with Octavia (LBaaS) and Masakari (instance HA).

• Proficient in compute & virtualisation: Operating and tuning KVM/QEMU (CPU model, NUMA, hugepages), performing live migrations, and working with libvirt and nova.conf.

• Experience with OpenStack networking: Neutron L2/L3, DHCP, routers, security groups, floating IPs, DVR/SNAT; OVN overlays; configuring Octavia listeners/pools/health checks.

• Hands‑on with storage: Integrating Ceph RBD with Cinder/Glance/Nova (clones, snapshots), managing pool policies, and executing recovery practices.

• Strong control‑plane & resilience knowledge: RabbitMQ, MariaDB/Galera, HAProxy/Keepalived on controllers; planning and drilling backup/restore.

• Experience securing identity & access: Managing Keystone projects/roles, SAML/OIDC federation, tokens/endpoints; TLS/PKI hardening.

• Track headroom and forecast demand; build actionable logs/metrics/alerts (native or external stacks) with clear dashboards.

• Proficient with Ansible, Terraform, Python and Git/CI/CD; strong Ubuntu administration (systemd, networking, kernel modules, secure configuration/patching); disciplined upgrade lifecycle (pre‑checks, staged rollouts, rollback paths).

Soft Skills

• Very good problem-solving skills, open mind towards feedback, and can-do attitude.

• Self-motivated and self-managing, with excellent organisational skills.

• Clear communication, documentation, and cross-team collaboration skills.

What's in it for you 

• Private life and health insurance for you and your family.

• Four weeks per year to work from anywhere for eligible employees.

• Gym reimbursement.

• Company bus applicable for employees based in Málaga city.

• Learning Pocket for personal development.

• A hybrid working model with flexible hours.

• 3 volunteering paid days each year.

• Generous referral bonus programme.